The Lincoln County leader. [volume] (White Oaks, Lincoln County, N.M.) 1882-189?, 1887-11-05
0UIDA AND DlSRAELI.
The High Priestess and High Priest
Of Flunkydom.
Dom PIatt'z chapter on Groiesque
Gig wo.ship-How We Insult
our Ancestors where
10 Hunt Snobs.

Once upon a time, years since, I sat in the
hotel at Dover, waiting Tor the winds and
waters Of the channel to agree upon some
thing so that | might cross TO France with
out suffering more torture than the law al
lows. l was given TO much delay at Calais
as well as Dover, for ] had come to realize
that there was more seasickness in a given
space ON that channel than ON any other
water known to humanity.
The boats are small in size, but possessed
Of a capacity 10 torture far ahead OF Eng
lands huge leviathans, whose thunder shakes
the earth, or words to that effect. a chan
mel steamer has six distinct motions, any
one of which is enough TO have silenced the
ancient mariner. There is a forward and
back motion, then from back to forward,
then one from right to left, then from left
10 right, then one up and down motion that
is dreadful, especially the down, wien the
attraction OF gravitation seems to leave one
with the most awful sensation of following
the floor into utter ~nothingness. There are
some very reliable people who insist on
another motion that is II combination of all
the others. | never reached that, being
quite insensible before that impossible con
dition is reached.
That proposed tunnel greatly interested
me, although l never expect to cross the
channel again. A memory of the past and
n regard for humanity, gave mo motive for
the interest, and | was disguised with those
epauletted stupidities that found in the
proposed tunne danger to England. That
IA dark, narrow hole, one piece of artillery
could easily defend and an ounce of dyna-
mite destroy, could, 10y any possibility DO
made a danger of, IS as absurd as to assert
that in the channels sea-sickncss lies Eng
lands safety.
However, ! was not waiting to have the
tunnel constructed, but for time when tide
md current and winds Should all agree, that
| might sail over without dying outright.
The Dover hotel in which l found myself
was u common enough looking affair, but
possessed of comforts, and l read novels, and
Cazed idly around me at the badly dressed
women and worse dressed men, in and out
of uniforms, when my attention was at
trncted by "a woman some forty years of
age, who was gorgeously atlired, and
seemed in her manner to feel that she was
somebody, and anxious to impress others
with that fact. Size was tall, well set up,
with Engiand'i limestone formation in the
way of bones, we'll covered with ad,pose,
rather coarse in tissue, garnishel with light
b.ue eyes, and an abundance of yellow hair.
There was something vulgar in this
woman's appearance when quiet, and it be.
came oppressive when she moved, and that
was nearly all the time. She seemed to
court observation and at the samJ time de-
spiss 1t.
I cannot put in words precisely the very
Unpleasant impression this loudly dressed
woman caused the locker on, but her dress
Cld manner were the essences Of bad taste
aud vulgarity. She atuactei one, low
ever, and l was not surprised when 4 friend
told ne that this bumptious person WIS
none other than Ouida, the well know.
novelist.
l regretted the Information came rs this
strange creature passed iron my view for
ever, as l could have lightened the bore OF
my waiting, by studying a pen driver whose
writings are certainly remarkable, and
whose influence in my own land is plenoIne-
nal.
Ouida is the high priestess of Flunky-
dom, and the great mass of those she minis
ters to are free born Americans whose social
and physical structures are based on a be-
lief in equality and honor to honest toll.
TIL late Disraeli, ''me Lord Beaconsfeld,n
was the high priest. And tn" power of
this sort OF church may be appreciated
when we remember tina; he was a poor jew.
who sold his brilliant talents to the moneyed
aristocracy of England.
There is no part VI the world, in which
this gig-worship, as Carlyle calls it, is so
Eroste cue and contemplate as with Us.
Descendants Of laborers, we are a nation Of
shop-keepcls, with no I.ore claim to gig. life
that c, m is of bong wei born, as they call
it, than we have to common sens. There is
something pitiful and mean in our sickly
efforts to appear other than what we are. for
the ambition is not noble AMI the effort in
wolves al insult to our Gnc-stors.
Since The great French revolution the aris-
tocracy have been driven out of their native
Lands, Lut they never w llinaly emigrate.
They nave too pleasant Il time at home. A
Tow younger sons, convicted Of crime, were
sent, with other c~unvicts, to Virginia, that
was for a time a penal colony. With this
exception the great mass that conquered "a
continent, and set up the great republic,
Were laborers, and We should be proud OF
the fact.
Weare not, ] am giieyed to say. Lamar
told me that were he hunting snobs and
tunky worshippers Of the vilest sort, he
would 20 among tic American colony at
Paris. He THOUGHT, and so asserted, that
they were exceptions to the great mass of
noble descendants OF heroic sires. He was
mistaken; they fairly represented our peo-
pie in that respect. There is not a man or
woman among US who is not eager to bump
his or her empty skull upon the floor in
presence of a lord.
l was one OF n crowd invited by Mrs.
Dahlgren, of Washington, 70 meet an Eng
lish prince-I have forgotten which one
ana it made me sick 70 500 the hungry-eyed
women look at the young man, as ii they
wished to eat him, while senator's and Iuem-
beers Of the cabinet addressed The poor boy
with bated breath.
The violence we do titles comes Of this in